Kurt von Briesen

Kurt von Briesen (3 May 1886-20 November 1941) was a General der Infanterie of the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany. Briesen was given the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his gallantry during the invasion of Poland in 1939, and was killed on the Eastern Front.

Biography
Kurt von Briesen was born on 3 May 1886 in Anklam, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in the German Empire (present-day Germany). Briesen joined the Reichswehr in 1904 at the age of 18 and fought in World War I, ending the war as a Hauptmann (Captain). He became a member of the Wehrmacht when Adolf Hitler became the Fuhrer of Nazi Germany in 1933 and on 27 August 1939 he was promoted to become a Major-General and the commander of the German 30th Infantry Division. Four days later, he commanded the division in the invasion of Poland that began World War II, and he commanded the German forces that won the Battle of the Bzura (Kutno) against the Polish Army. Having saved Johannes Blaskowitz's German 8th Army, Briesen was given the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by Hitler and Briesen had the honor of riding down the avenue Foch in Paris upon the city's fall on 4 June 1940.

On 20 November 1941, he was killed near Isjum to the south of Kharkov in the Ukraine during Operation Barbarossa in a Red Air Force attack by the Soviet Union.